Don't shout at women hikers, okay?

Monday, September 03, 2012

My labor day goal of going on a hike with my dog has been accomplished. I did 6 miles in 140 minutes, which is a good hiking pace for me.

I went to the trails near my house because I woke up late and didn't want to waste too much time driving; these trails are great because they are of varying lengths and are marked every .25 miles. They have everything from a .35 mile trail to a 4.5 mile trail. I did a 1 mile loop first, and then I did the 4.5 mile trail (and a .5 to finish).

So far, this all sounds great, doesn't it?

What isn't great is that around 3.5 miles on the longer trail (which, of course, fewer people use), I look back and see two younger men out for a hike. Unconcerned, I continue my pace. It's hard to see them on the wooded trail, but I know they are somewhere behind me because I can hear them; then, after about .25 of a mile, I hear them shouting "hey!" and doing a long whistle. I wasn't sure if they were shouting to me, or not, but there were no other humans around, and it scared the *#&! out of me. Needless to say, I booked it out of there! I mean, what dying braincell tells these guys that shouting and whistling to grab a woman's attention in a secluded spot is a good idea? These are either men who are out of ideas, or up to no good.

I still had a good time, but I'm going to go ahead and make the drive to a much more heavily trafficked trail if I decide to go hiking with only my shepherd mix next time.

Men are so stupid sometimes. They think it's cool but it's not. Glad you were able to hightail it out of there. Those are times when I thank my lucky stars I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. It does NOT guarantee me success but really ups my odds!

Glad you heeded your intuition and exited the area quickly. I had a situation once where two young men seemed to be tailing me in their car, passing and then doubling back, when I was on a city walk. Every time they came down my side of the street, I ran to the other. It was scary.

On the plus side, I was out for a lunchtime walk last week on a new route for me, and as I nodded to a man I was approaching, he said, "Hey, baby!" Yeah, sexist as hell, but at 56 (and a half), it actually made my day.

Love that you wrote: "these are either men who are out of ideas"....I will never understand why men think that doing something like that would make a woman want to stop in the middle of nowhere and talk to them. SERIOUSLY!!Hope you have a good rest of the day.